It’s not hard to look at the environmental compromise brokered by the firm behind a $300-million commercial development near Hwy. 401 and see a parallel with the mega-project’s potential economic impact.

In both instances, it may bring something new to London — but only at the expense of what’s already here.

At a Thursday hearing that cleared the path for PenEquity’s landmark project to proceed, the Toronto-based developer agreed to spend $500,000 recreating a wetland that will be destroyed by construction, appeasing local conservation officials.

It’s now expected to be two years before the stores open and start creating what politicians, chiefly ex-mayor Joe Fontana, have trumpeted as 1,200 new jobs for Londoners.

But like the wetland, it’s possible most of those jobs will simply replace pre-existing ones lost as the new retail complex sucks up business.

“Twelve-hundred people might work there. Those aren’t necessarily new jobs,” said Mike Moffatt, an economist at Western University’s Richard Ivey School of Business. “You’re really just transferring jobs.

“(But) there is some economic benefit. At the end of the day we’re talking about a few hundred new minimum-wage jobs.”

That job-creation criticism — to actually grow the economy, you must make something to sell elsewhere — is nothing new. It’s been echoed since council voted 10-5 to approve PenEquity’s plan last August.

It’s been in limbo since, due largely to the objection of the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, whose officials believe the ecological deal they’ve struck with PenEquity is the best outcome possible.

Rather than take a hard-line stance, the authority showed a willingness to compromise with business with this deal, said senior official Jeff Brick.

“We are satisfied that this is the best solution that we can possibly get for this site.”

At issue was a previously undocumented 4.2-hectare woodlot with a 2.4-ha wetland within it. City council approved PenEquity’s plans for the site without a full environmental assessment, irking the authority that oversees wetlands.

At a cost of $500,000, PenEquity has agreed to the 2.4-ha watershed “ecosystem creation project” — including as much from the original wetland as possible. It’ll be located on the site’s southwest corner, near the Dingman Creek corridor.

PenEquity is giving the land to the authority that will preside over it. The developer also is helping to create an “environmental enhancement fund” for the Dingman Creek watershed.

The pact was announced Thursday at a hearing of the Ontario Municipal Board, to which the conservation authority and Costco separately appealed city council’s PenEquity approval. Both parties have now essentially withdrawn their appeals.

The developer must now go through city hall’s planning process. PenEquity vice-president Leger Xavier expects construction to start in six to 12 months, with the first stores opening in two years.

What those stores will be, he wouldn’t say.

Many Londoners are hoping for “destination shopping” tenants — Ikea, for example. PenEquity’s previous developments are anchored by the types of retailers already here, such as Mexx, Chapters and Future Shop.